On June 6, one factory at Dongfang's headquarters, which was left relatively unscathed, recovered production, and became an important symbol of full production recovery at the company.

"To resume production as soon as possible arises from our aspiration and sense of responsibility," said He.

Zhu Xianbin, Vice Secretary of the CPC Committee of Dongfang, said that the company's principle for booking deals interrupted by the earthquake is that the delay should not exceed three months.

Since the earthquake damaged over 80 percent of the production equipment of Dongfang, it would be difficult for it to fully resume production in a short period of time.

Zhang said that some of their clients had expressed worries about the company's future. However, what touched him was that others made bookings with the company to show their support for it in hard times.

Due to the destructiveness of the earthquake, many companies needed government aid. Dongfang, however, relied mainly on its own strength to resume production. The company retrieved all production equipment it could from the debris and bought new equipment to replace what was lost. By the mid-July, Dongfang had retrieved over 900 pieces of equipment and important materials from the earthquake rubble worth 3 billion yuan ($428.6 million).

According to Zhang, the company had recovered 60 percent of its production capacity before the earthquake. It is expected to make an 80-percent recovery by the end of 2008 and a full recovery midway through 2009.

Corporate culture

Dongfang, built on an empty mountain 42 years ago, has grown into China's leading power generation facilities manufacturer. It is common for several members of the same family to work at the company and many regard the firm itself as a kind of extended family.

According to He, immediately after the quake many workers remained on-site to help with relief work. During the half day after the quake, the company organized a team of 3,000 volunteers who safely relocated 1,300 injured people.

"During the first five days after the earthquake, I was so busy directing the relief work that I slept for less than five hours altogether, without brushing my teeth or having a hot shower," He said, adding that many of his colleagues did the same.

According to He, from the quake on May 12 nobody at the company took weekend breaks. They were resumed in July when the company issued a regulation that said employees could rest for one day a week. This arrangement was met with almost full support from the employees.

The only factory undamaged by the earthquake was the one producing the major parts of power generators. The relatively new factory was built in 2002 and adopted a steel framework, which made it earthquake-proof. Zhang Jun, a crane driver, has worked at Dongfang for 14 years. He said he was lucky that no family member was injured in the earthquake and that the damage to his home was small. During the five-day termination of production after the earthquake, Zhang worked as a volunteer for earthquake relief at the firm. Since the factory resumed production on May 17, he has worked without a break.

"Now the buildings have been consolidated and new emergency exits and anti-earthquake facilities have been installed. We feel very safe working here," said Zhang.

Relocation

Since the township of Dongfang's headquarters is located on an earthquake belt, it has experienced a small tremble almost every two years, so when the major earthquake struck, many people did not realize its seriousness.

Most of Dongfang's buildings were built over 40 years ago, and failed to meet current anti-earthquake construction requirements. Due to its position in an earthquake-prone area and difficulty of getting in and out of the mountainous area, the company had put forward a proposal to relocate a long time ago. Some branches of the firm had already moved, but a wholesale relocation was never realized due to Dongfang's contribution to the local economy and the colossal expense of moving.

If Dongfang was to move, it would have an enormous impact on the 60,000 residents of Hanwang, half of whom are employees and their families. Many of the other 30,000 residents, who are mainly farmers, do odd jobs to make extra money since arable land is limited in this mountainous area. Another benefit of Dongfang for the local economy is that it pays a large sum of tax to the local government.

Wang Yuanfu, a 50-year-old farmer from Hanwang, has been doing odd jobs in Dongfang for six years. The income covers most of the living expenses of his five-person family.

The earthquake destroyed Wang's house, but nobody was injured. Wang's family, who now live in a tent, have been relying on government cash and grain subsidies since the earthquake. The day after the earthquake, Wang went to Dongfang to work on a daily wage of 29 yuan ($4.1). Wang's biggest worry is that if Dongfang moves out of Hanwang, he will have to travel further to find odd jobs.

Zhu confirmed on July 17 that Dongfang will move to an industrial park in Deyang City and the relocation will be completed by May 2010. The aim is to build a more advanced and safer company, added Zhang.